Chuen Lung Visual Archive

Following the official opening of the Hong Kong International Photo Festival’s Koon Man Space in May 2024, the “Chuen Lung Visual Archive” research project was launched.

The project brings together institutions and artists from diverse disciplines to conduct phased fieldwork and oral history documentation in Chuen Lung. By integrating a wide range of historical materials, the initiative aims to establish a comprehensive visual archive of Chuen Lung. This effort seeks to showcase and preserve the cultural heritage of this 500-year-old Hakka village, while documenting its transformation from a rural settlement to a modern society.

The scope of the research spans six interconnected areas: everyday life, vernacular knowledge, anthropology of landscape, cultural practices, natural ecology, and ethnobotany.

Open Studio (I): Investigation of Sound and Modernology

This April, artists Sui Fong and Sunny Wong will open their studios for two weeks to present the findings of their research.

Sui Fong explores Chuen Lung’s rich auditory landscape through sound investigations, reactivating the dormant sound memories of its history.

Sunny Wong draws inspiration from the everyday lives of villagers, delving into the contemporary cultural significance of their practices.

Through a fusion of sound and daily life, history and modernity, their work unveils a new chapter in the story and future of Chuen Lung.

Sunny Wong Presents: Chuen Lung Modernology

Sunny Wong will showcase a fieldwork map created through the lens of “Modernology,” delving deeply into the folk wisdom of Chuen Lung. As Kon Wajiro described in his works, Modernology, “as a methodology, focuses on the ‘objects’ visible before our eyes today, with its ultimate concern being the present state of humanity.”

This exploration highlights key aspects, such as villagers’ upgrades to everyday items, self-made farming tools, objects from past industrial production, and vernacular architecture.

By apprenticing with villagers – the exact wrist twist for efficient sweeping, the unspoken rules for bargaining with local gods, even the best tools for picking veggies – Sunny uncovers how these instinctive practices, though lacking systematic rationale, mirror subconscious approaches to living within specific socio-temporal frameworks.

Through these items, Sunny narrates stories of “observations along the roads of Chuen Lung,” revealing a rich tapestry of culture, history, and ingenuity.

Sui Fong Presents: Investigation of Sound

Sui Fong uses sound as a medium to collect childhood stories and the soundscape of Chuen Lung, exploring “the wisdom of finding joy in hardship” from children’s perspectives. These narratives inspire a series of creations surrounding auditory memory, sound guides, and Chuen Lung instruments, titled “A Stream A Path.”

Even during the resource-scarce 1960s, the connection between humans and their environment, as well as the yearning for life, never ceased. For adults who are engrossed in daily labors and have forgotten their playful, inventive selves, this serves as a crucial reminder. By interviewing villagers, Sui Fong reconstructs playful routes and creates “Chuen Lung Instruments” inspired by these oral histories. For instance, what kind of melody might emerge from picking watercress? Could the act of collecting firewood and pine needles for fuel, often viewed as a tedious chore, be reimagined as a performative gesture of play? When recording and reconstructing fleeting memories of mountain winds and disappearing species, are we, in essence, creating fantastical new forms of life?

The fictional instruments inspired by these interviews serve as keys to unlocking memories. Using these as a medium, she invites villagers and the broader public to explore how sound can evoke recollections and reimagine life in Chuen Lung. By doing so, she guides people to rethink the dynamics of human, environmental, and ecological interactions. Through collective remembering and imagining, she fosters the recreation of shared memories.